Adieu! Monsieur l'Amirale, prenès tout ceci comme un marque bien sincere de mon estime pour vous. To Admiral Knowles, at Petersberg. TRANSLATION. "CATERINE.” "If after this you wish to go hence I can have no objection to give you the letter you ask of me for the King of England; but I shall find it difficult to enter on the plans of reform, for my own Fleet, since I shall be under the necessity of abandoning the idea the very moment after having attempted it, on account of the departure of the only man who is able to undertake it. Adieu! Admiral, receive this as a sincere proof of my esteem for you. "CATHERINE." After his return to England, Admiral Knowles had the satisfaction to hear, that when the Empress enquired into the causes of failure of some of the works she was then carrying on, and found they had not been conducted according to the plan which Sir Charles left, she immediately issued an order that they should alone be finished according to his original suggestions.-We are sorry to add, that the rewards which this distinguished officer received for such services, both at home and abroad, were but little adequate to the value of such continued exertions.-Presque tout le monde, says the celebrated Duc de la Rochefoucauld, prend plaisir à s'acquitter des petites obligations: beaucoup de gens ont de la reconnoissance pour les médiocres, mais il n'y a pre:que personne qui n'ait de l'ingratitude pour les grandes. Admiral Knowles was in 1777 buried in the middle aisle of the church of St. Nicholas at Guilford; which is on the left in the road to Portsmouth, after passing the bridge of the above town. His wife was buried in the same place, on the left of her husband, with this inscription over the grave-Here lyes interred the body of Mrs. Mary Knowles, 1742. Also the Lody of Mrs. Mary Alleyne, her mother, sho departed this life July 7th, 1742, aged 40. Above, on a small marble monument,-To the Memory of Mrs. Mary Knowles, daughter of Jobu and Mary Alleyne, of Barbadoes, wife of Captain Charles Knowles, who departed this life, March the 16, 1741-2, in the 22d year of ber ager ARMS.] Azure, crusuly of crosslets, a cross moline voided, or. Morro.] Semper paratus. THE RUSSIAN ADMIRALTY. FROM COXE. THE Admiralty *, which stands on the south bank of the Neva, opposite to the fortress of Petersberg, was built by Peter the Great; and is a large building of brick, surrounded with a rampart and ditch: it is the great receptacle for ship's stores; and contains large magazines of cordage, sails, masts, anchors, which are sent to Cronstadt for the equipment of the fleet. A large area, which lies between the front of the building and the Neva, is used for the construction of vessels: when I was at Petersberg, five men of war and two frigates were upon the stocks t. I have already observed, that in our expedition to Peterhof and Oranienbaum, we visited Cronstadt, a description of which I reserved for the present occasion. Cronstadt, at which port the greatest part of the Russian Navy is situated, stands upon the island of Retusari, in the Gulph of Finland; and was founded by Peter I. as being provided with the safest harbour in these parts, and as forming a strong bulwark by sea for the defence of the new metropolis. The only passage by which ships of burthen can approach Petersberg, lies on the south side of Retusari, through a narrow channel; one side whereof is commanded by Cronstadt, and the opposite by Cronslot and the citadel. Cronslot, which stands upon a small island of sand, is a circular wooden building, and surrounded with fortifications of woɔd that jut into the water: it contains a garrison of an hundred men. The citadel is another small wooden fortress, raised also upon an adjacent sand bank, and capable of holding about thirty soldiers: all large I am informed that the Admiralty is intended to be removed to Cronstadt. The men of war which are framed in this dock are, in their passage to Cronstadt, lifted over the bar by means of camels: these machines were originally invented by the celebrated De Witt, for the purpose of conveying large vessels from Amsterdam over the Pampus; and were introduced into Russia by Peter the Great, who obtained the model of them when he worked in Holland as a common shipwright. A camel is composed of two separate parts, whose outsides are perpendicular, and whose insides are concave, shaped so as to embrace the hull of a ship on both sides. Each part has a small cabin, with sixteen pumps and ten plugs, and contains twenty men. They are braced to a ship underneath by means of cables, and entirely inclose its sides and bottom. Being then towed to the bar, the plugs are opened, and the water admitted, until the camel sinks with the ship, and runs aground. Then the water being pumped out, the camel rises, lifts up the vessel, and the whole is towed over the bar. This machine can raise the ship eleven feet, or, in other words, make it draw eleven feet less water. vessels must sail between Cronstadt and these two fortresses, exposed to the fire of the opposite batteries; for the other parts of the Gulph are only from one to eleven feet in depth. All these fortifications were, at the time of their construction, esteemed places of considerable strength; but now they derive their consequence more from their past importance, than from any resistance they could make against the attack of a powerful fleet. The Island Retusari is a long slip of land, or rather sand; through the middle of which runs a ridge of granite. It is twenty miles from Petersberg by water, four from the shore of Ingria, and nine from the coast of Carelia. It is about ten miles in circumference; and was overspread with firs and pines when Peter first conquered it from the Swedes. It contains at present about 30,000 inhabitants, including the sailors and garrison; the former of whom amount to about 12,000, the latter to 1500 men. The island affords a small quantity of pasture; produces vegetables, and a few fruits, such as apples, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries, which thrive in this northern climate. Cronstadt is built upon the south-eastern extremity of the island; and is defended towards the sea by wooden piers * projecting into the water, and towards the land by ramparts and bastions. It is a very straggling place, and occupies, like all the Russian towns, a larger space of ground than the number of habitations seem to require: the houses are mostly of wood, excepting a few fronting the harbour, which are of brick stuccoed white. Among the latter are the Imperial Hospital for sailors, the barracks, and the Academy for marines and officers of the Navy. That seminary contained, in 1778, three hundred and seventy cadets, who are cloathed, maintained, and taught at the expence of the crown they are admitted at the age of five, and are suffered to remain until they reach their seventeenth year. They learn accounts, mathematics, drawing, fortification, and navigation; and have masters in the French, German, English, and Swedish languages. They are trained to Naval affairs, and make an annual cruise in the Baltic as far as Revel. Cronstadt has a separate haven appropriated to the men of war, and another to merchant ships. The men of war's haven contained twenty ships of the line, and nine frigates, which were dismasted, with their guns and tackle on shore. We went on board of the Ezekiel, of eighty guns, esteemed the finest ship in the Navy: she was built under the inspection of Admiral Knowles, and carries eight hundred men. In 1784, Cronstadt was fortifying with stone piers. The estimate was 7:000,000 rublicy. Close to the haven for merchant ships is a canal and several dry docks, begun in 1719, by Peter I. for the purpose of refitting the men of war. This useful work was neglected under his successors, and was not completed until the reign of his daughter Elizabeth: it has been still further beautified and improved by the present Empress; and is now applied for building as well as careening ships of the line. At the extremity of these docks is a great reservoir, 568 feet in length, which contains water sufficient, and half the quantity over, to supply all the docks; which is pumped out by means of a fire engine, the diameter of whose cylinder is six feet. The length of this work, from the beginning of the canal to the end of the last dock, is 4221 feet. The sides of the docks are faced with stone, and the bottom is paved with granite; they are 40 feet deep, and 105 broad; and are capable of containing nine men of war upon the stocks. Nothing can convey a higher idea of the vast abilities and persevering genius of Peter the Great, than the situation in which he found the Russian Navy, and the state in which he left it. Though in the beginning of his reign he did not possess a single ship in the Baltic yet in the course of a few years he equipped a fleet of fifty sail of the line, which rode mistress of that sea. Under his successors, the Russian Navy was greatly neglected; and it was in so bad a condition at the accession of the present Empress, that she may be said to have almost equalled her great predecessor in the creation of a new fleet: she invited several English captains and ship-builders into Russia, and particularly Admiral Knowles, who was remarkable for his skill in Naval architecture. Under her auspices, Europe lately beheld avith astonishment the Russian flag displayed in the Archipelago and the Turkish fleet annihilated at Tchesme by a squadron from the North, Russia produces every article necessary for the construction and equipment of ships, which are built chiefly at Cronstadt, Petersberg, and Archangel. Those constructed at Cronstadt and at Petersberg are framed with oak; while those from Archangel are made with larch wood; the latter are much less adapted than the former for an engagement. For the supply of the dock-yards at Petersberg and Cronstadt, the oak is sent from the province of Casan; the Ukraine and the government of Moscow supply the hemp; the masts are procured from the vast tracts of forest which lie between Novogorod and the Gulph of Finland; or are furnished by the provinces lately dismembered from Poland. Pitch and tar are obtained from Wiburgh. Manufactures of cordage and sail-cloths are established in different parts of the empire; and the magazines of Petersberg and Arch angel are always plentifully stored with large quantities of both those articles. The Navy of Russia, in the ports of the Baltic and Archangel, consisted, in the latter end of 1778, of 38 ships of the line, 15 frigates, 4 prames, 109 gallies +. Of this number about twenty-eight ships of the line and ten frigates, including those built with larch wood, were fit for immediate service. In case, however, of necessity or danger, Russia producing all the materials for the construction and equipment of ships, her Navy might soon be considerably increased. But though Russia, since the beginning of this century, has made surprising exertions in the marine, and rapidly become more powerful at sea than her neighbouring kingdoms in the North; yet, in naval affairs, she must be considered as still in her infancy, being in a great degree indebted to the English +, as well for the construction of her ships, as for manœuvring and disciplining her fleet. Many circumstances indeed concur in retarding the progress of her maritime strength: 1. The want of ports in the Ocean; 2. The small extent of her sea coast, and that obstructed by ice; 3. A deficiency of experienced seamen. 1. With respect to the first cause, it is obvious that she possesses not a single port upon the Ocean, excepting that of Archangel; which is of no use but in a commercial light, as well on account of its great distance from the other European seas, as because the navigation round the North Cape of Lapland, situated in the 72d degree of latitude, is only open in the midst of summer. 2. In regard to the second cause, it has been justly remarked, that there are very few instances of any nation's having arrived at a great height of Naval power, which did not possess a considerable tract of sea coast; and Russia, excepting the late acquisitions upon the Black Sea, the desolate shores round Archangel and in the Frozen Ocean, and the inhospitable regions of Kamtchatka, can boast no greater portion of maritime country than what lies between Wiburgh and Riga; a mere point for so large an empire, and rendered less valuable for bordering upon the Gulph of Finland and the Baltic; inland seas without tides; when compared with the Ocean scarcely superior to lakes; and inaccessible As I could not obtain an exact account of the Russian ships in the Black Sea, I have chose to be silent on that head; I shall only observe, that several men of war and frigates were building at St. Demetri, Taurof, and Kherson. + See page 270. Mr. Coxe should have here mentioned the name of the worthy British Admiral to whom alone this was owing. |